Page 36 of The Last Sanctuary

She did.

Raven fumbled through the leaves, found her knife, and shoved it and the carving into her cargo pocket. She rose to her feet, not bothering to comb the leaves from her hair or brush the dirt from her pants.

A sharp, wild-edged thrill thrummed through every cell in her body. She followed Shadow through the trees and thick underbrush. He led her to the far-right side of the enclosure, where the wolf den, otherwise called the night house, was located.

She broke into the small clearing and halted.

The white she-wolf, Luna, lurked at the den entrance. Her hackles lifted, and her lips peeled back in a growl. Not fearful, but wary.

Luna was the distrustful one. That made her smart. People could whisperI love youandI miss youwhile they stabbed you in the back. Raven knew that better than most.

She lifted her hands, palms out in a gesture of surrender, and took a step back. Luna’s growl deepened.

Of course. A wolf wouldn’t understand a human gesture of surrender. Raven dropped to a hunched sitting position, makingherself small and submissive. She kept her gaze on the ground. “I’m not a threat to you. I promise.”

Luna turned her growl on Shadow. He wagged his tail at her. She showed her teeth, reiterating her displeasure at Raven’s presence, who was an interloper who didn’t belong.

Shadow loped toward Luna and licked her muzzle, his ears pricked hopefully.

She snapped at him before sashaying out of reach.

Undaunted, Shadow approached and nuzzled Luna’s side. Her lips pulled back. She gave him a severe, disapproving look. She snapped at him again, her jaws closing an inch from his left ear. A punishment.

This time, Shadow backed off with a low whimper.

Luna turned and stalked into the den, her hackles raised. Growling, she abandoned Shadow and Raven to the cold.

“She’s mad at you,” Raven said. “I think she would have preferred to have me for dinner.”

Shadow’s tail drooped in disappointment. He knew rejection when he saw it. He looked like a dejected teenage boy who’d just been turned down for a date.

“You and me both,” she whispered. “I get it. I do.”

His ears pricked. He was listening.

“Thanks for not eating me, by the way.”

He stared at her, not moving.

What did he want from her now? He was waiting for something.

Using only careful, controlled movements, Raven slowly lowered herself into a sitting position on the ground. She crossed her legs and folded her hands in her lap.

The black wolf appeared satisfied. He circled her a few times, then flopped onto the ground. He stretched out not three feet from where she sat, so close she could feel the heat radiating from his large body.

Thick clouds drifted across the moon. The night grew darker, colder. Raven barely felt it. She listened to the steady rhythm of his panting breaths. She didn’t dare touch him, though she wanted to. She simply watched him, awestruck.

The whole insane night filled her with a marvelous incredulity, a reverence, along with a host of inexplicable emotions she couldn’t name, let alone describe.

This was what her dad must have felt all those years, so close to the wild creatures he loved. It was like she was connected to some hidden, unseen thing greater than herself, united in this moment with the vast, unknowable universe.

Like she’d touched a dazzling star with her bare hands.

She had not forgotten the danger the bikers posed. She had not forgotten that her father was dead, that her mother had abandoned her, or that the Hydra Virus might be proliferating inside her, hijacking her cells and turning her body against her.

This moment was something else. It was a gift. She was perceptive enough to recognize it for what it was. She felt the shift like tectonic plates beneath her feet, a sharpness in the air, a lightness in her chest.

In this small, perfect moment, the dying world seemed so very far away.